Why micro.blog

I’ve been on Twitter since the summer of 2008, and it has easily been my favorite social network in that time. I’ve even recently cut Facebook and Instagram out of my life (we’ll see how long that lasts, but it’s been a month or so, and I don’t miss them), but Twitter has remained. It’s mostly where I talk Apple nerdery with people and follow a few people in my other fields of interest.

But reading Manton Reece’s post about owning your own content made me want to step back from how I use Twitter a bit. It also has freed me up to share my ideas longer than 140 characters, but not long post worthy. I decided I wanted to back Manton’s Micro.blog service on kickstarter, and I’m glad I did.

Micro.blog also has a sustainable business model. It has a lot more potential to last for years to come than Twitter does right now because user pay for the service and gain a lot more control over their content in the process. There are no ads. There are no share holders to please. It's a 2 person operation, and they are laying a strong foundation.

There are some standard features from other social networks missing from Micro.blog, and that is intentional. The most obvious is reposting. Manton addressed its absence recently, and I’m personally glad steps are being taken to prevent false information and hateful rhetoric on Micro.blog

Having started using the service with a site hosted at GitHub Pages and strung together with some crazy Workflows, I have gotten a lot more out of Micro.blog since I switched to their hosted plan. Being able to post directly from the Micro.blog app instead of having to use Drafts, Workflow, and Working Copy has allowed me to post with confidence that everything will work correctly. Sharing photos has seen the biggest improvement.

Micro.blog hasn’t launched to be public yet (just Kickstarter backers for a little longer), but I have a few invite codes if you’re interested. Go to the contact form here on The Class Nerd, and I’ll give them to the first people who respond. It’s a great service, and I’m excited to watch it grow for years to come.